Anglicans reject women bishops

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The Reverend Colleen O'Reilly, for the yes case, and Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen, who opposed the bill.Photo: Tony Ashby

Australia's Anglicans yesterday rejected women bishops, with the yes vote falling just short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill.

The bill had to secure 66 per cent of the vote in each of the three houses of the General Synod, or parliament, meeting in Perth. But the final count fell just 5 per cent short.

The bill passed in the House of Bishops, with 17 of 23 votes, but failed in both clergy (63 yes, 43 no) and laity (67 yes, 39 no).

Supporters of women bishops last night vowed to fight on. Leading Anglican laywoman Murial Porter, a member of the church's special committee on women bishops, said the church had made a grave mistake.

"I will fight on while I have the energy and the breath because I believe it is of God," she said.

"If you want something you have to be prepared to lose and lose and lose for 100 years. Wilberforce only heard on his deathbed that slavery had been abolished," Dr Porter said.

Gippsland Bishop Jeff Driver, who chaired the committee, said he was still committed to supporting women bishops.

"We are sitting here with a lot of grief. There is a pastoral task for the church now," he said.

Sydney archbishop Peter Jensen, who led the opposition, expressed his sympathy for those who voted for women bishops.

"Because Christianity matters to us, it is life and death to us, this sort of thing touches us all immensely, deeply," he said.

The monolithic power of Sydney, boasting nearly a quarter of the delegates and voting against the bill in a bloc, formed the main obstacle to its success.

Anglicans are divided into three main positions. Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics oppose women bishops; liberals want them without any reservation, and the middle position wants women bishops but with provision for parishes that cannot accept them.

Archbishop Jensen, opening the debate for the no case, told the synod that objections were to the principle and the practice, and were based on the Bible and the unity of the church.

"The objections do not arise from motives such as misogyny. It is not about the power of the clergy, it is not 'the boys' club', nor is it about 'Sydney'," he said. "What is at stake is the whole of our belief system - that is what holds us in place as a church. We are on the precipice."

Anne Young, a Sydney member of the synod's working group, opposed her own committee's recommendation to support the bill. "I believe God wants men to take the primary responsibility in this church," Dr Young said. " To move ahead to this next stage now is premature and unwise."

Melbourne delegates, both evangelical and catholic, supported the bill.

Archbishop Peter Watson said if women should not be bishops, nor should they be church wardens or priests or sit in synods.

He said the leadership of the Anglican Church was diffused and shared, and women were already involved.

"And where would we be without them," Archbishop Watson said. "It's the next natural step in the life of the church."